Pages

Summer of Zombie: Teaser from Undead Obsessed by Jessica Robinson

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

CHAPTER 1:

THE OBSESSION BEGINS

Zombie films serve as a great lens to examine concerns
society has about modern science. Let’s face it, when it comes to horror
movies, science has a bad reputation. Blind ambition, experimental serums, and
genetic experiments are often blamed for the giant monster terrorizing the city
or the reason aliens are taking human prisoners or the cause of the dead rising
from the grave to consume living flesh.

Using film, literature, and interviews with experts, this
book examines how zombies portray real-world fears such as epidemics, mind
control, what may or may not exist in space, the repercussions of playing God,
and the science behind the fears.

Science has made it possible for us to live the way we do;
it has given us numerous advances in all fields of life from medicine to
agriculture to entertainment. Yet, with all of these advantages, there are a
multitude of disadvantages that could prove to be detrimental to humans and
society. Weapon technology used in wars is one of these major disadvantages,
but anything that is beneficial to humanity, including medicine, has the
potential to harm us. My goal is to explore how zombies become a metaphor for
our fears of science and what could happen if science gets out of hand.

Throughout this book, I examine the fictional world of
zombies and the real world of science. Often, I refer to “truths” about
zombies, but since they don’t really exist, these are “truths” that exist within
the context of zombie films and books.

I was in junior high the first time I ever saw Night of the
Living Dead (1968). It was one of several movies my dad had on VHS, and it sat
on the shelf in a closet with row upon row of other VHS tapes. I remember being
scared, but not cover-my-eyes-I’m-going-to-scream-my-lungs-out scared. I didn’t
jump, but there was this uneasiness that settled over me. I was afraid to look
out my bedroom window at night for fear that the same lifeless eyes the
creatures in the film had would be looking right back at me. I glanced over my
shoulder while walking down the street to make sure a slow-moving corpse wasn’t
following me. For a while, I avoided cemeteries.

The next night, I had a friend come over to stay the night
and I exposed her to the film. Again, it didn’t scare us in the
make-you-jump-out-of-your-skin way, but as she sat on the floor tightly hugging
a pillow, I knew she had experienced the same creepiness I had the night
before. It was a feeling neither of us could put into words. Despite the
unease, I enjoyed the feeling and wanted to explore it further.

My next adventure into the zombie world was Return of the
Living Dead (1985). In my naiveté, I assumed this was the sequel to the amazing
movie I had just watched. I was confused when the same sense of dread didn’t
fill me. The film wasn’t creepy at all; it was funny. (At the time, the term
“campy” wasn’t in my vocabulary, but it definitely describes this film.)
Despite not being the sequel to Night of the Living Dead, I still enjoyed the
film, and to this day, I remember laughing at the partial dog corpse that comes
alive and falls off the shelf barking—in fact, it was that part specifically
that made me watch the film over and over.

After those two films, I don’t remember any from my
childhood affecting me in an equally profound way. But they paved the way for
my interest in films, books, and TV shows about the undead. They started my
obsession with walking corpses that attack and consume the living in gory, horrific
fashion. And I’m not the only one. Millions of people share my passion.

Zombies have overrun society. They are in books (some have
even invaded the classics: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; The War of the
Worlds, Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies; and Alice in Zombieland), movies, video
games, and on TV. The Hartford Marathon Foundation has set up a zombie chase to
benefit the Ron Foley Foundation. The Anchorage Running Club held a Zombie Half
Marathon and a Kids Zombie 2.5k. (The list goes on and to find an event near
you, Google “zombie marathons.”) There are companies that set up “real” zombie
hunts to test your skills and your nerves. Anderson Farms in Erie, Colorado,
held a zombie paintball hunt as part of their Halloween festivities. Shoot
Extreme has developed zombie hunts for exclusive clientele to test their skills
in a dark, zombie-infested shoot house. Apparently, you are also required to
rescue refugees. Rotting flesh and walking corpses have gathered on the streets
to raise awareness and money for charities. There is hardly a facet of life
that zombies haven’t permeated.

The popularity of zombies has grown exponentially in the
last decade. Novels dealing with the undead have been published in droves, even
spurring the creation of independent zombie-specific publishers such as
Permuted Press (established 2004). According to TV by the Numbers, weekly
ratings ending on March 30, 2014, revealed that The Walking Dead was ranked
number one for cable-viewed shows with 15.678 million viewers. World War Z, the
zombie film starring Brad Pitt and based on a book with the same title by Max
Brooks, grossed $540,007,876 worldwide. People are fascinated with zombies, and
so am I. They ask the fundamental question: What does it mean to be human?

This question has always interested me—as it has countless
others—as I attempt and struggle to define myself and find meaning in the
world. If zombie films have shown me anything in the way of an answer to that
question, it’s that zombies are filled with hate, driven by primal instinct,
and are ready to consume anything to fulfill their desires. And so are the
humans trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic world. The audience watching
zombie films is forced to ask: Who is the real monster? The line between
zombies and humans is ultra-thin.

I explore these same notions and attempt to answer these
questions in my works of fiction, while other authors have explored them in
critiques of the zombie genre. There are vast amounts of essays and books that
look at how zombies are metaphors for religion, gender, classism, and race,
among other social issues. Books such as Race, Oppression and the Zombie:
Essays on Cross-Cultural Appropriations of the Caribbean Tradition, edited by
Christopher M. Moreman and Cory James Rushton; “We’re All Infected”: Essays on
AMC’s The Walking Dead and the Fate of the Human, edited by Dawn Keetley; and
“Gospel of the Living Dead”: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth by Kim
Paffenroth explore various facets of humanity and how zombies represent our
most heinous qualities. And they all make valid points. These are all issues or
concerns that plague our society and could be changed to make life better for
everyone. I wanted to add my voice and opinion to those fantastic commentaries,
but I could never figure out what I wanted to say that hadn’t been discussed
before. That idea eluded me for a long time.

Inspiration planted a seed the first time I read The Zombie
Survival Guide by Max Brooks. I was completely awed and amazed at how he
legitimized zombies. The book is written in a practical and straight-forward
fashion and explains ways to survive and kill zombies, including what types of
weapons work best, how to fortify shelter, and ways to find food. The advice
could be applied to real-world situations like natural disasters or terrorist
invasions. Even though he was dealing with fictitious characters, it felt to me
that he had given them a cause—a virus—and concrete explanations for their
actions as well as ways to fight them. Most films give an explanation as to how
zombies are created, but it seems ancillary to the carnage and destruction or
how the survivors are affected by the undead hordes. In The Zombie Survival
Guide, the science takes center stage. The virus that creates the undead is
explained in detail and in such a way that the symptoms could actually occur in
the real world. It makes zombies seem plausible, real, genuine.

Inspiration sprouted further after I watched World War Z—a
film based on another book by Max Brooks, which I had also read, it just hadn’t
struck the same chord as the film. Again, the scientific approach of finding
the cause of zombies intrigued me. In the film, the main character, Gerry, is
tasked with finding “Patient Zero,” who is the first person to become infected
with the zombie disease, so that science can attempt to understand what caused
the dead to rise and perhaps devise a way to destroy it. Along the way, Gerry
finds a lot of answers about the undead and eventually helps science develop a
way to combat them. Suddenly, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about.

I had a professor in college who told me that every film has
a message, but if you really want to know what society is afraid of, watch
horror. Zombie films portray a lot of social fears, including those mentioned
earlier involving religion, gender, classism, and race, but what I wanted to
focus on was science. The majority of zombie films I have watched in my life
involved science or a scientist in some way—usually in an unflattering role.

* * *
* *

The stench of rotting flesh is in the air! Welcome to the
Summer of Zombie Blog Tour 2015, with 30+ of the best zombie authors spreading
the disease in the month of June.

Stop by the event page on Facebook so you don’t miss an
interview, guest post or teaser…and pick up some great swag as well!

Giveaways galore from most of the authors as well as
interaction with them!